


Icarus and his Medigun

by Somethin_Strange



Series: wounds even the medigun can't fix [2]
Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: !!!!!!!this might not make sense if you didn't read the first part!!!!!!!!, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Backstory, Canon-Typical Violence, Delusions, Gun Violence, Hallucinations, Heavy Angst, Historical Inaccuracy, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mad Science, Major Character Injury, Medic-Centric, Mentioned WW2, Psychological Trauma, Temporary Character Death, This is about Medic. what were you expecting, Unethical Experimentation, implied PTSD, it has a happy ending i promise, tread lightly, whoops
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:27:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29833932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somethin_Strange/pseuds/Somethin_Strange
Summary: Medic thinks of himself like Frankenstein, but he's really more of an Icarus. One bad series of events, started by a crossbow, proves it well.
Relationships: Heavy/Medic (Team Fortress 2), Medic (Team Fortress 2) & Everyone, heehoo found family goes brrrrrr, that might happen at one point
Series: wounds even the medigun can't fix [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2193126
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	1. we were born sick, you heard them say it

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize if I do not get the German correct here! I'm an American guy who doesn't know German, but I'm attempting to include it in Medic's dialogue anyway.  
> Tread as lightly as you need to for this one, and PLEASE don't forget to read the tags.  
> Enjoy!!

_ Click, click, click. _

Teenage Medic stood in a nursing tent in the calm before a battle, holding a bag of syringes. They were capped, each one holding the precious flu vaccine. It’s his job to count them, but he already knew...Whatever number was in there, it wasn’t enough for everyone.

The war would still keep raging anyways.

Rain tapped against the tarp, a noise that kept trying to tear him from his work; But he resisted. The count stretched on. As always.

The syringes clicked together as he picked them up.

_ Click, click, click. _

_ Einundachtzig, zweiundachtzig, dreiundachtzig. _

There are people outside of the tent, he notices; Their shadows cast against the cloth wall and their voices carry inside.

The one on the right, a woman by the sound of it, spoke loudly with a heavily English-accented voice. He recognized her faintly, a nurse who worked beside him...They’d interacted once or twice.

“Jonathan, this is ludicrous!” Her shadow’s hands moved with expression, tensing. “We aren’t ready for an offensive, not now.”

“You look plenty ready,” said the one on the left. A man, voice stoic.

“Our best nurse is  _ dead _ , Jon.” The woman hissed. “Our second best is her son, and he shouldn’t even BE here!”

“The child?” The man asked, his shadow’s shoulders shifting. “I don’t see why not.”

The woman paused, seemingly in shock.

_ Click, click, click. _

_ Vierundachtzig, fünfundachtzig, sechsundachtzig. _

“Jon, are you INSANE?” The woman shouted. “He is a  _ child!  _ Children should not have to see war!  _ Children _ should not have to stitch the wounds of dying men!”

Medic knew he should not have been listening, but it was impossible not to. His stomach churned with guilt and slight disgust.

“Marta,” the man pleaded, “this is war. Desperate times call for desperate measures. He cheers everyone wherever he goes, and we need that morale for the offensive. The battle was not my decision.”

“He can’t cheer anyone like this! He is a child in mourning!!” The woman’s shadow gestured to the tent. “He wants to help, but can’t do anything without breaking down. I just keep assigning tasks with barely any use so he can have a  _ break _ for once.”

Medic bit his lip, keeping his head low; Feeling his eyes growing wet.  _ Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, Ludwig, you really can’t start crying right now. _

Tears escape anyway.

“EVERYONE is mourning, Marta!  _ EVERYONE  _ has lost someone to this war, but we still need nurses!”

“JON!”

The sound of a blow connecting; The sound of someone shouting in surprise, then even more arguing. Medic, startled, drops the syringes.

The rain beat down louder than before as he restarted his count, the wetness from his eyes dripping onto his hands.

_ Click, click, click. _

_ Eins, zwei, drei. Never enough, never enough. _

They would need to order more body bags.

A voice cuts through the rain. “Doc? You alright there?” It’s much gentler than the ones screaming outside. 

Medic is far too busy with tasks of ‘’barely any use’’ to respond, though. He just shifts, continuing to count.

His heart hurt worse with every heartbeat.

“Doc?” the voice tries again.

Medic still does not answer, too busy, too busy, too busy; Or at least that’s his excuse.

“Doc, are you alright?” 

A warm hand places itself on Medic’s shoulder.

And just like that, something snapped.

Medic’s vision fractured like glass; He was half seeing the tent, half seeing...somewhere else.

The doctor whipped around only to see the Engineer standing there, a worried expression on his face; Liquid dripping down from Medic’s eyes.

“Wo...Wo bin ich...?” Medic tries, looking around. The floor of the tent was now tile, white and shiny and clean. His voice is weak.

Engineer continued. “It’s alright. It’s nineteen sixty-eight, you’re in the RED Team dorms. You’re safe.”

There are syringes in his hand, and rain at the window of his lab.

“I...I apologize.” Medic said in his heavily-accented english this time, slowly coming back to himself. Engineer was right, he reminded himself, it was just a flashback.

“Nothin’ to apologize for. You’re cryin’, Doc, what happened?” Engineer’s hand gave gentle pressure to Medic’s shoulder. The doctor’s hand reached up, drying the tears from his face.

“Hah...The rain must have reminded me of something else. The syringes too.”

Engineer hummed. “How bout you tell me what you were going to do with those syringes?”

Medic can tell what he’s doing...just trying to make a distraction. He appreciated it all the same, though.

“It’s quite interesting, actually!” The doctor said, adjusting his glasses; Putting the syringes back onto the table. “Before...that happened...I was going to change the formula inside. For my Crusader’s Crossbow.”

“Really?”

“Ja. To make it hurt the BLUs worse and heal the REDs better.”

Engineer whistled, turning to sit on the countertop. “Sounds like an impossible task there, Doc.”

The doctor gave a disbelieving hum. “Close to it, but still possible. I’ve been experimenting with the dosage of chemicals I put in everyone’s food-”

“The  _ what _ ?”

“-And hopefully,” Medic continued, “the changes to both that and the syringes will have the outcome I desire. It might take a little while, though.”

“Hold on, hold on.” Engineer said, a laugh working its way into his sentence. “Can we go back to the chemicals-in-the-food?”

Medic blinked emptily.

“Mein friend, I thought you would have noticed,” he said simply. “I’ve been doing it for months. The chemicals in the food react with the chemicals in the syringe. Did you never stop to question how the crossbow’s healing actually works?”

“...Guess I didn’t.”

The two  coworkers friends looked at each other for a beat of silence before bursting out into laughter. Maybe it was the light-headed, dizzy I-just-had-a-breakdown type of laughter, but it was laughter all the same.

The work could wait just a little while longer.


	2. stay that way for the rest of the day, and watch the time go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know if the mercs lived in dorms, and if so, what the dorms would look like; so i just made both it and the surroundings up. Hope thats ok!

Weekends- most of the time, at least- were the merc’s off days. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, it was a perfectly picturesque morning. These were the days the teams didn’t have to fight; The days where one could sit back with a beer or some other cold liquid and relax; Maybe even go to town and make frivolous purchases. The days of rest.  
Which was a good thing, since Medic hadn’t slept since thursday.

The doctor rubbed a hand down his face, staring at the stacks of books opened on his table and the chemicals themselves.  
Today was at least SUPPOSED to be a day of work in Medic’s eyes, but this was going to take forever. Usually he could make medicine in hours, but it looked like this project was going to take multiple days; half a week at most.

Though, to be fair, maybe that’s just what happens when one tries to make medicine in a tea kettle with an electric handheld mixer.

He sighed, dropping the mixer to the floor with a clatter. He had to wait FOREVER for the kettle to get to the right temperature before even _thinking_ about making any significant changes to it.   
So, unfortunately, he would have to wait for his lovely batch of baboon cells and chemicals to be ready before getting back to work.

It was an excuse to procrastinate, at least.

Medic dropped his lab coat carelessly to the floor, the white fabric collapsing against the wall. He now had time he hadn’t planned for; enough to make conversation, perhaps get a drink, as the others were surely doing. There could truly be worse things to happen.  
He strode out to the front room, through the white-tile halls with sprinklings of dust kicked off across the floor. Scout was the cause of all that dust; The man always wore his shoes in the dorms, even though they had tried to enforce a shoes-off-at-the-door rule.   
Speaking of the devil, there he was. Scout was sitting on the front room’s couch, eating cereal straight from the box, much to Medic’s chagrin.

“Hey, doc! You’re up!” Scout said, smiling lazily. Some inane show blared from the tv, yet neither Scout nor Medic were truly paying attention to it. “You look awful.”

“Guten morgen to you too, _Scout_.” Medic went over to the kitchen, separated from the living room only by the counter top. He opened up the fridge, giving an annoyed exhale about how little was there. Seriously, the contents of the fridge were two eggs, a sandvich, and a carton of beer. “Do you know where the others are?”

“Dunno. Think Engineer’s getting groceries, though; And Demo’s out.” That was good, at least...And as long as Demo didn’t get into any trouble, then he would be fine as well. “Spy’s out on the bridge.”

Medic hummed in response. “Perhaps I will go bother him.”

Scout crunched loudly on his cereal, speaking with his mouth full. “You can try, but he might be doin’ his thing again.”

Spy had a habit whenever he was alone...Of slipping away from anyone’s sightline and just...disappearing, even without his watch; Perhaps stashing away in some small place, some hidey-hole. Nobody really knew.

“There are not many places for hiding on the bridge, no?”

“Knowin’ him, he’s probably already found one months ago.”

“True.” 

Medic walked to the door, intending to leave the conversation there; One hand on the handle.

“Hey, before ya go!” Scout said, putting his feet up besides him on the couch, still in his _dirty shoes_. “Two things I gotta say.”

Medic sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “How many times must one tell you? Get your shoes off the couch. But yes?”

“Jeez, _soh-rry_.” Scout said, dragging out the syllables. He did not, in fact, follow Medic’s order. “Anyway! You forgot your meds, man.”

Medic’s eyes widened. “Did I? Ah- thank you for reminding me.” He backpedaled to the kitchen, picking up an orange bottle of pills from a sectioned-off place on the countertop. He unscrewed the lid, pouring two of the white-and-blue pills into his hand. Ziprasidone, it said on the label.   
He screwed the lid back onto the bottle, putting it back in it’s area; popping the pills in his mouth as he walked back to the door.

“Second thing!” Scout piped up, making Medic roll his eyes. “If you see Spy, can ya tell ‘im that his show’s gonna be on soon?”

“Jawohl.” Medic opened the door, halfway out the door before getting interrupted again.

“Oh!” Scout said again. “Real quick, before you go-”

Medic closed the door.

Finally.  
_Peace._

It was nice outside, though a little hot; the heat reflecting across the sand that surrounded the dorms. Archimedes was circling somewhere above, probably looking for insects with Sniper’s owl for company.   
The soft sand crunched beneath his boots as he walked out to the bridge. It wasn’t much, honestly; just a covered bridge over a riverbed that had run dry a long, long time ago. Made of wood that always creaked in the middle, no matter how little pressure you put on it.   
It wasn’t the best bridge, but it was their bridge.

Medic strode out to the middle of it, pleased to be in the shade. There really, really wasn’t any place to hide, but Spy had certainly found somewhere. That was just the kind of person he is.

“Spy?” Medic called out into the empty bridge. “Scout wants you to know that your show will be on soon.”

There was a silence as the words slowly faded out of the air. Medic quite honestly felt rather silly, calling out to no one.  
Or not.

A thud rang out from behind him, followed quickly by the creaking of the bridge’s wood; Medic whipped around quick enough to see Spy drop down from legitimately nowhere. The roof, maybe?  
The Frenchman simply readjusted his tie, giving no answers. 

“I’ll be there,” Spy simply said, “Always am.”

Medic raised an eyebrow, leaning on the bridge’s railing. “Ja, ja. This show you’ve been watching- what is it about?”

“It’s quite fascinating.” Spy brushed imaginary dust from his suit, then looked Medic directly in the eye. “It’s about a German doctor who minds his own business. Quite unrealistic, yes?”  
Said German doctor rolled his eyes good-naturedly. 

“Haha, very funny.”

The edges of Spy’s mouth quirked in a smile. “Good morning, doctor.”

“Good morning to you as well.”

Spy left soon after, off to watch his show; leaving Medic alone on the bridge for what was actually the first time today. 

…

It honestly did not take long for him to have company again, though.

“Good morning, Doktor!” The sound of the Heavy’s voice rang across the wood, and Medic turned with a smile.

“Greetings, mein friend!”

Heavy smiled in return, gentle as always. “Sleep well, da? Where is bird?”

Medic’s heart fluttered for some reason...it always happened when Misha smiled like this.

“Ja, rest was good,” he lied. Sleeping took too much time away from the project, in all honesty. “Archimedes and the rest are fed, off flying...somewhere.”  
That, at least, was the truth. Heavy and the birds got along, which was strange but also cute. The doves usually went out of their way to antagonize people (especially Sniper, for some reason); so it was nice to see that they had someone other than Medic they liked.

“This is good, but you are lying.” Heavy said, resting his arm on the bridge’s railing. “Office light was on throughout night, working until sunrise.”

Medic sighed, looking away. “This project needs finishing, Misha. Sometimes that means no sleep.”

“Still. Doktor requires rest to function.”

Medic hummed in non-acknowledgement. “Ja, ja.”

Heavy tilted his head slightly, a worried look in his eyes. “I care for Doktor. Doktor needs rest.”

Medic flushed slightly. It was always nice hearing that from his closest friend; even if it made him feel a little dizzy-in-a-good-way.

“After the project is done. I promise,” the doctor said, giving a tired smile. “How are your sisters?”

That seemed to brighten Heavy’s mood. “They are good, report good things in letters. Ask about team frequently. Ask about you.”

“Me?” Medic asked. “Why, exactly?”

“Da, you. They have taken interest in us.”

He laughed. “Well, we are _very_ interesting people, kamerade.”

“Would…” Heavy started, looking away for a second. “Would interesting person like to go to town with me? Later today.”  
Gott, that was tempting; another excuse to procrastinate, this time with his closest companion by his side...His head filled with pleasant images.  
He sighed.

“ _Scheiße_ ,” he cursed, “I can’t. I would love to another time, but...the project. Perhaps someone else will go with you, ja?”

“I do not want to go with someone else,” Heavy said. “Just you. No town today.”

“I’m sorry.”

Heavy put his heavy hand on Medic’s shoulder. “Don’t be, Doktor. Some other time, da?”

“I would like that, mein friend,” Medic said dreamily. 

Another afternoon and night of work was to come, surely with its own frustrations; with mixtures that didn’t work right and equipment to be fixed.  
But not right now. Now was just a time to stand on the bridge in comfortable silence, watching the clouds slowly pass by.

“I would like that.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heavy: Medic, who is my closest friend and nothing more than that-  
> His sisters: (Press X to doubt)  
> ...  
> The Mercs are a family who playfully bully each other, you can't change my mind. /Lh


	3. come and go out my mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bit of a shorter chapter this time!! this is one of the violent chapters, so. watch out.

_BOOM._

Explosions from guns and grenades rocked the ground, kicking up gravel and dust into the air. Medic raced through the battlefield, watching bullets bounce off of his medigun, casting sparks from its surface. His team was nowhere to be found, and staying outside was too dangerous; as he was actively being shot at. He couldn't even return fire, not while his crossbow was still at his study; put there to be easily worked on.  
He ducked into the doorframe of a building, one with twisting hallways laid out in front of him that seemed to go on forever. As best he could, he made use of this temporary cover.

Moments like this made Medic wish he had had the time to sleep in the past few days.

_BOOM._

Battles were incredibly tiring, but mostly the same. It had all become a strange routine at this point. The feeling of the quickened pace of his heart, beating hard against his ribs; The feeling of attempting to rejoin the battle outside, sprinting to the doorframe, breathless yet quick.

The feeling of looking up and seeing a Soldier’s rocket coming directly for him.

The feeling of weightless shock-

Of 

_oh  
_ _dear  
_ _god  
_ **_MOVE-!_ **

...It was all darkly familiar.

_BOOM._

He’d backpedaled just in time to suffer only minor injuries, but the force of a rocket’s explosion hurled him down a side hallway.  
Eventually he made hard contact with a wall, pain flaring as he tumbled to the ground; The impact tearing a surprised shout from his throat. His ears rang from the noise, dizziness wrapping around him like a hand on his throat.

It was sort of pathetic how one bad explosion could mess with a person’s senses.

He was beyond exhausted at this point, every failed attempt to get up tiring him further. The dizziness was just too intense to bear at this point; Medic slumped down against the wall, hearing the booms get closer and closer, resigned to his fate-  
Until Scout came running around the corner, skidding to a stop in front of him. He seemed to analyze the situation for a moment, before his eyes traveled back to make eye contact. “Doc! D’ya need help up?”  
Medic shivered. “That would be appreciated.”  
Scout held out his hand, which Medic gratefully took. He struggled to his feet, the dizziness slowly receding.

_BOOM._

Another explosion shook the ground and Medic’s hand darted for the wall, stabilizing himself. A flash of red peeked around a corner, and Medic thought for a second that it might be blood.   
Scout was speaking, Medic knew; but he was drowned out by the sounds of combat outside.

_BOOM._

The flash of red appeared at the end of the hall again, peeking around the corner.

And in that moment, time stood still.

His veins felt like they were filled with snow in that moment, soft and endlessly cold.

The red wasn’t blood.

It was himself.

A second version of himself, an Other-Medic, dressed exactly the same; a demented smile on his face. In one of his hands he grasped a bucket, stained with blood around the outside, in the other a bonesaw. Wordlessly, the Other-Medic raised up the bonesaw-holding hand, giving a strange wave before turning on his heel and sprinting away.

_What the hell?_

Medic’s brain short-circuited for a second, not listening to whatever Scout was saying; trying to figure out what the hell he had just seen. Eventually he came to a conclusion, one what smacked him in the face with just how _obvious_ it was. He reached down, tugging his ubersaw from his belt and raising it like a war banner.  
“That Medic is a spy!” The doctor yelled, running down the hall after him; steps faltering at first but pushed onward by the ground shaking once more.

_BOOM._

Scout lagged behind, but Medic paid it no mind, all too focused on chasing the spy-  
Even more explosions rocked the ground, shaking the walls as Medic skidded around the corner-

Only to be greeted with a dead end.

“ _Scheiße_ ,” the doctor hissed under his breath. “He got away.”  
Scout turned the corner, seemingly twirling his weapon in his hand as he stayed behind the doctor. “That, or perhaps…”

Medic didn’t even have the time to turn around.  
Sharp pain bloomed in the center of his back, tearing through his senses, dragging a yell from his throat-  
A gloved hand slid over his mouth, silencing any noise he could’ve made.  
“...You just had the wrong person,” came the voice of the BLU Spy. Medic slowly, ever slowly turned his head to face Spy, watching the man discard a mask of Scout. Smoke poured from his suit, laying low in the air; curling around the knife sticking out of Medic’s back.

Medic barley even had the time to feel betrayed before BLU Spy ripped the butterfly knife out, causing another strangled noise to come from the doctor’s mouth as he dropped to the floor. BLU Spy didn’t even try to soften his victim’s fall, just brushing the blood from his suit with a sneer.  
“Stay down, doctor.”

_BOOM._

The ground beneath him shook once more. As Medic’s consciousness started to fade out, feeling the tug of Respawn wrapping around his very bones, he had enough sense to consider one last thought.

Perhaps his lack of sleep was causing problems after all.  
He hadn’t noticed that his own teammate had been replaced, and that Other-Medic…  
Well, the Other-Medic had to be a hallucination brought on by lack of sleep, right? That was the only possible explanation, right?

...Right...?

Medic’s eyes slipped closed as Respawn claimed him.

  
_BOOM._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wonder who that Other-Medic guy was. was he a hallucination, was he really there, who is he, really?
> 
> oh well, guess we won't know for a few chapters, huh? ;)


	4. seeing double

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LIVE

“Trial one, control group.”   
The sound bounced around Medic’s office; echoing across the tile. The doctor had a tape recorder in his hand, speaking into it in German. The hand not holding the recorder tapped the table as he waited, a discarded syringe rolling around aimlessly on the floor.  
“The base solution has been introduced into the subject- intramuscularly.” The word ‘intramuscularly’ felt odd in his mouth; not used to saying the english word for it. He rolled one of his shoulders back in discomfort at the injection site. “If any symptoms are to appear, they will within the first thirty seconds.”

He considered, for a moment, that this might not be as good of an idea that he thought it was. What was he to do if something went wrong? If he’d accidentally injected himself with poison? Respawn was only turned on when the battles were raging, so if he were to die here, it would be curtains-down for him.

The doctor brushed the thoughts off. Of course things would be fine! If he’d messed up the base solution, turned it into some poison, then the medigun could take care of it! Probably.

And plus, he could always call for help! A while back, after some messy business with the Spies, the Administrator had given every member of Team Fortress a panic button; Built by the Engineers in a rare moment of off-battle camaraderie. Scout had apparently thought they were toy walkie-talkies at first, but it was drilled into them that they were for _emergencies only._ A press of the big red button in the center of the rectangle and the signal is transmitted to everyone on your team in the span of a few seconds.  
Medic kept it in his vest pocket at all times, just in case- he’d had to use it once after one of his more... _angry_ experiments escaped.  
At least he had proof that his panic button worked as it was supposed to! That could be the silver lining here.

So truly, there were absolutely no foreseeable consequences for injecting a chemical he was only vaguely sure wouldn’t kill him directly into his arm! For science!  
What could possibly go wrong?

Medic cleared his throat, speaking into the cassette tape once more.  
“...Nichts. No recordable symptoms for the moment, other than a light-headed feeling.” He kicked the empty syringe across the floor, it clanging against a trash can. “Though I don’t know whether that’s correlation or causation.”

More to experiment with, he guessed.  
He could use the rest of the team as test subjects later, after the first trial test. After he’d confirmed that it was at least _probably_ not poison.

God, he was tired. Had he mentioned that lately?

The last time he was this tired was in _medical school_ , and that had been when he had made his first steps on inventing the Medigun. The high score was nine days in a row, and even then he’d collapsed into unconsciousness against the giant windows of his dorm...It was honestly a wonder they hadn’t broken.  
Medic was approaching four days without sleep at the moment; kept functioning at this point pretty much through coffee and force of will alone.   
It’d probably make any doctor take one look at him and begin to tear their own hair out- but hey, he didn’t lose his medical license for nothing.  
He was much too tired to care about any of this anyway.

…

But he was awake enough to care about the red flash passing quickly by his door. 

Medic sprung up from his chair in that instant, trying to ignore the sudden dizziness that came with- stumbling as he attempted to dash over to the door.  
 _Nobody else was awake at this hour. Nobody on the RED team, at least._

He pushed open the door, finding his way out; the noise of the creaking hinges bounced down the hallway.   
The empty hallway...except for a familiar person standing ominously at the end; facing towards Medic and the way to the RED team member’s rooms.

Other-Medic.

There was a beat of silence as the two stared at each other. The Other-Medic had the same bonesaw in one of his hands, gleaming and sharp as if newly maintained. The familiar stranger raised the saw, touching one of his fingers to the tip; a small beadlet of red dripping down the weapon’s teeth and onto the floor. _Sharp.  
_ Medic called, breaking the silence. “Who are you? Why- Why are you here?”

The Other-Medic said nothing, just stared directly into Medic’s eyes- unblinking.  
Slowly, ever so slowly, Other-Medic started to smile a grin FAR too large and maniacal for Medic’s liking; almost looking like a video of some crazed, smiling killer being played in slow-motion.

The real Medic took a step backwards, ice in his veins. _Just who in the hell WAS this man?_

Other-Medic took a step forward, wordlessly raising the saw. His smile never wavered as he gestured to behind Medic, then made a slashing motion with the weapon as he took another step forward.  
 _“Let me get to the rooms of your teammates, I’ll kill them for you.”_

Medic’s heart started to beat faster as he lost another step of ground. He REFUSED to let this man- this THING- get _anywhere near_ his teammates.   
Not if that was its plan.

Other-Medic looked down at its watch, apparently having a timepiece on its wrist, and sighed; eternal smile slowly fading. He looked back up to the real Medic with a look of exasperation, tapping the watch with his saw and shrugging.  
 _Out of time?_

Medic looked down at the floor for a second, trying to decipher anything else that could mean, before the sound of footsteps made his head snap back up.   
He raised one of his arms to protect himself, the other shooting for the panic button in his vest pocket; preparing to fight for his life-

Only to realize that the sound wasn’t of Other-Medic’s incoming attack.

Quite the contrary, actually- the thing was running away.

…  
 _…  
_

_…_ _Oh Scheiße. He’s RUNNING away._

Medic sprinted after Other-Medic, believing somewhere in his foolhardy heart that he could actually CATCH the thing this time. He passed where Other-Medic had just stood, casual shoes making him drift across the spotless floors...

…

...Only to find the dead-end hallway completely empty. Again.  
It had gotten away.

_Gott. Gott!  
_

Medic laughed a hollow laugh, a bitter sound; stumbling to the far wall and sliding down against it to the floor. There were so many things to deal with at once- the lack of sleep, the project, his job, and now this THING that had intruded into the dorm’s hallways.

And Other-Medic couldn’t have been a hallucination from lack of sleep either, because he was real-! Medic _knew_ he was real this time.  
He had to be.

A fluttering of soft white feathers settled itself on the doctor’s shoulder; Archimedes come to comfort their human friend.

Small comfort.

“Danke…” The doctor whispered, transferring his feathered friend from his shoulder to his arms. “...Danke, Archimedes.”  
The silence permeated everything, seeping into his very bones as he held his bird close. This, at least, was downtime. Other-Medic at least _somewhat_ away from his teammates, a reasonable excuse to procrastinate the project.

So he continued to sit there, against the wall, as the hours ticked by; simultaneously too weak and too apathetic to move. Even as Archimedes fell asleep, Medic sat there, zoned out until the sun came up. Not sleeping, but not entirely awake- just existing.

Slightly at peace.  
But “slightly” was still better than nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the more detail-oriented of you: it's not a continuity error, it's a clue. ;)

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed!! Please please please leave a comment if you did!! Short comments, long comments, any comments: They all absolutely make my day!!  
> Have a great day, reader!!


End file.
